A Healer of Terror Victims Becomes One

By GREG MYRE

Published: September 11, 2003

JERUSALEM, Sept. 10—
In this tormented city, responding to terror attacks has become a grim medical specialty, and Dr. David Applebaum was known as ''the first man on the scene.''

Dr. Applebaum spent years dashing to bomb sites to treat the wounded, and he was an innovator in emergency medical services that are called into action all too often here.

Dr. Applebaum, 50, was present at the bombing of a cafe on Tuesday night -- this time as a victim. He was killed with his daughter Nava, 20, as they ventured several blocks from home for a late night snack and a father-daughter talk on the eve of her wedding.

Instead of giving his daughter away today at a large celebration set for a Jerusalem kibbutz, Dr. Applebaum was buried alongside Nava in an even larger funeral at the stony, hilltop cemetery of Givat Shaul on the western edge of the city.

Hundreds had planned to spend the evening dancing with the Applebaums. Instead, thousands mourned, many with red eyes and weak knees, as they recalled his good works. ''He was a great combination of spirituality and humanity,'' said Aviva Cayam, who knew Dr. Applebaum since he was a 14-year-old growing up in Cleveland. ''When people think of him, they use the Hebrew word 'tzadik.' That's a very special person who has both a human and a godly touch.''

The day of his death, Dr. Applebaum had returned from a New York conference dealing with terror attacks.

Timed to mark the second anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks, the conference was sponsored by the NYU Downtown Hospital and held at the investment bank Goldman Sachs, a short distance from where the twin towers once stood.

On Monday, Dr. Applebaum gave a step-by-step presentation on how major bombings are handled at Shaare Zedek, the hospital where he directed the emergency room.

Shortly afterward, he flew to Jerusalem, joined by relatives coming to Israel for the wedding, family friends said.

Dr. Applebaum, a father of six who lived in a large family compound, ''was not a cafe goer,'' said Dr. Jonathan Halevy, the director general of Shaare Zedek hospital. ''If not for the special occasion of the wedding, he would not have been there.''

Father and daughter visited Cafe Hillel, on a street lined with restaurants and trendy shops in a neighborhood known as the German Colony.

A Palestinian attacker with a bomb strapped to his back tried to enter a neighboring pizza parlor, but was pushed back by a security guard. He ran a few steps to the cafe and detonated his explosive as he burst past security at the door.

That blast and an earlier suicide bombing on Tuesday at a bus station outside an army base near Tel Aviv killed a total of 15 Israelis and wounded dozens.

After about 100 suicide bombings in the past three years, the Israeli response has become a sadly well-ordered drill. Blasts in Jerusalem reverberate throughout the compact city, sending rescue workers into action before their phones ring.

Dr. Halevy said he needed eight minutes to reach the hospital, but Dr. Applebaum almost always beat him there.

Dr. Halevy was surprised Tuesday night when he arrived and his colleague was not present. When the doctor did not answer his cellphone, Dr. Halevy suspected the worst.

Dr. Applebaum had been affiliated with the Israeli rescue service, Magen David Adom, for 20 years, and longtime colleagues identified the body at the cafe.

Just last month, Dr. Applebaum greeted Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York City, who made a solidarity visit in the wake of a suicide bombing that killed 22 people.

In an interview after that bombing, which killed and wounded many children, Dr. Applebaum said ''one of our very important tasks is to unite the children with their parents.

''We know the separation in these incidents causes intense worry and fear,'' he said.

Nava Applebaum was the third of Dr. Applebaum's six children, who ranged from age 25 to 12. Like most Israeli women, she performed two years of national service after high school, working at a home treating children with cancer.

Dr. Applebaum graduated from Roosevelt University in Chicago in 1972 before turning 20. Two years later, he was ordained as a rabbi and also received a master's degree in biological sciences from Northwestern University. He graduated from the Medical College of Ohio in Toledo in 1978, and came to Israel several years later.

Here, he received acclaim for pioneering thrombolysis, a procedure that helps dissolve blood clots in heart attack victims during the first crucial moments, and for founding private clinics credited with reducing the burden on hospital emergency rooms.

In 1984, the doctor reached a man shot in a clothing shop, and began operating on him while the shooting continued, Israeli television reported.

Dr. Larry Hirsch, an emergency room doctor, said Dr. Applebaum made a dynamic first impression back in 1969 when he was a high school student at Hebrew Theological College in Skokie, Ill.

''David burst into a room of college students with a burning question to ask our rabbi. After a lengthy debate on the issue, David left and the rabbi laughed and said, 'That's Applebaum,' '' Dr. Hirsch recalled. ''He was always bright, energetic, and learning.''

Years later, when the rabbi, Aaron Soloveichik, who was by then using a wheelchair, visited Israel, Dr. Applebaum attended to all his needs.

Dr. Applebaum arrived for work at 6:30 a.m., ''but he really didn't keep any hours,'' said Dr. Halevy. ''He always stayed until the last patient has been assessed and treated.''

In one instance, the sound of an explosion at 2 a.m. in Jerusalem sent Dr. Applebaum instinctively racing to the hospital, only to be told a car tire had exploded, a common occurrence during the scorching summer.

The only time he was not available to the medical staff was on Wednesday afternoons, when he went to his son's seminary to help him study the Torah, said Nechama Kaufman, a nurse at Shaare Zedek hospital.

One of his many obsessions was cutting waiting time for patients. After taking over the emergency room last year, he set up a computer system that gave the staff instant online information on patients.

While in New York on Monday, he logged on to check in, and then called to gently chide the staff about patients who were not being treated on time, said Ms. Kaufman.

''He commanded respect and authority, but not in a threatening way,'' she said. ''He always had a smile.''

Photos: Dr. David Applebaum with his daughter Nava. (Photo by Flash90 via Reuters)(pg. A1); Friends of Nava Applebaum wept at her funeral yesterday. Ms. Applebaum was killed along with her father, Dr. David Applebaum, in the suicide bombing of a cafe in Jerusalem on Tuesday, the eve of her wedding.; Hanan Sand, 23, walked behind the body of his fiancée, Nava Applebaum, yesterday in Jerusalem. (Photographs by Rina Castelnuovo for The New York Times)(pg. A8)